On World Book Day, 6 March, every child in the UK and Ireland will receive a token to buy a book. This year, the theme is ‘Read your way’, emphasising the idea of reading for pleasure.
What was your favourite book as a child? Maybe one that a teacher read to the class, or maybe one you read under the blankets at night? If it left a lasting impression, why not read it again as an adult?
I’ve re-read children’s books before and they can seem different when you’re older. Perhaps seeing them through the lens of adult experience changes how you perceive them. But they take you back in time – the time of your own life as well as the book’s time.
Bringing back memories
Stories can stay with us a whole lifetime. Recently, an elderly lady with early-stage dementia told me about her favourite childhood book, The Distance Enchanted, published in 1938. It has stayed with her for over 80 years. She remembered getting it from the bookshop next door to the Town Hall. The shopkeeper knew she was a bookworm, and said one day, “You’ll like this one.” He gave it to her as she didn’t have enough money to pay for it.
It’s still available second-hand, so I traced it and bought the edition with the cover that she’d recognise. She read it slowly and remembered some of it. She decided she’d liked it because it must have struck a chord at that time — the early days of the war. And realised that she had changed, not the story.
Stories develop self-awareness and empathy
That’s what books can do – strike a chord. Children might identify with particular characters, which makes them feel less isolated. And stories help them understand that other people are just that – people.
One I remember strongly from childhood is set in Burnham Overy Staithe in Norfolk. Decades on, I can still visualise scenes from it.
I decided to look for other East Anglian stories with a strong ‘sense of place’. There are plenty; you may remember some of these. I’ll start with my favourite:
Norfolk
When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson. A young girl is sent to live in a village on the saltmarshes, and befriends a girl who is not all she seems. Ten years ago, Studio Ghibli made this into a cartoon set in Japan. You may have seen it without realising it was originally located on the Norfolk coast.
Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick. A story for teens, set in a future England covered by water, with Norwich an island. A girl is separated from her parents and in a dog-eat-dog world, must make her way by boat from Norwich to Ely to search for them.
Coot Club and The Big Six by Arthur Ransome: the Swallows & Amazons series set in the Norfolk Broads.
The Great Gale by Hester Burton. On the Norfolk coast during the devastating 1953 floods, a boy and girl rescue their neighbours and clean up the village after the ordeal.
Waterslain Angels by Kevin Crossley-Holland. In Waterslain village, in the 1950s, two children search for the 14 missing wooden angels that had adorned the roof of the church.
Once Upon a Street: Norfolk Stories for Children by Isabelle King. Adventures in the streets of Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, Wymondham, Norwich and Holt.
Essex
Secret Water by Arthur Ransome, set near Walton-on-the-Naze, in the tidal salt marshes and low-lying islands.
Flambards by K.M Peyton. A trilogy set around the time of WWI. The second book The Edge of the Cloud sees aviation pioneers taking trial flights over the rolling Essex countryside.
Essex Folk Tales for Children by Jan Williams. Stories about Romans, Vikings, knights, basilisks and Old King Cole of Colchester. Readers will relate to their historic Essex surroundings.
Suffolk
Sea Witch Comes Home by Malcolm Saville. In coastal Walberswick during severe floods.
Mystery of the Night Watchers by A.M. Howell. In 1910, Nancy and her mother go to stay with her grandfather in Bury St Edmunds. A mystery set against the backdrop of the public reaction to Halley’s Comet.
We Didn’t Mean To Go Sea by Arthur Ransome, is at Pin Mill on the River Orwell.
101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. The countryside chases are around Sudbury.
I Capture the Castle also by Dodie Smith. An atmospheric story about a girl living in a dilapidated Suffolk castle. For teenagers.
The Other Side of the Whale Road by K.A. Hayton. Teenage Joss is sent to live in sleepy Hoxne. A bike accident propels him back to Anglo-Saxon times and he gets involved in trying to save King Edmund.
Cambridgeshire
The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston. Set in Hemingford Grey Manor, Boston’s own home built in 1130, it’s a mildly spooky ghost story.
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, takes place in a home resembling Mill House, Great Shelford, where the author grew up. Cambridge is represented as ‘Castleford’.
Bedfordshire
The Borrowers by Mary Norton is reputedly set in a grand house based on The Cedars, Leighton Buzzard, where Norton grew up.
Just in Case by Meg Rosoff. A Luton teenager’s whole world changes when he saves his brother’s life.
East Anglia
Kevin Crossley-Holland, from North Norfolk, also wrote The Old Stories, an anthology of ancient legends from all over East Anglia, from Swaffham to Bungay to Coggeshall.
There is even an award for the best children’s book, set in or by an author from East Anglia. The Mal Peet Award is organised by the National Centre for Writing, the Eastern Daily Press, and Jarrolds.
A break from the real world
In difficult times, stories are a welcome escape. Recognising the setting adds an extra dimension. If you don’t know a young person you can share a book with, why not read one yourself to ‘get away’? As in the start of a lovely poem by Julia Donaldson (creator of the Gruffalo series):
I opened a book and in I strode
Now nobody can find me…
